Art Journal Cover

Today is my Sunday, so I am cleaning house and working on some art projects...so I'm cleaning and making a mess at the same time! There are a group of artists who are involved in a "Pay It Forward" movement, and I'm making this journal to send to them. They are providing patients at a rehab clinic journals for an art therapy program at the center. It gives me practice and does some good at the same time.  This one is all painted up, and ready for some doodling in black and white ink. I'm loving the orange and green.

Here it is all done. I think I liked it better before I took the pens to it. Oh well, live and learn.

It started out plain black. Here are a couple of pics of it in earlier stages:

The yellow paper is old ledger paper washed with thinned yellow acrylic paint. The orange is a beautiful napkin that someone sent me in "happy mail."

Documented Life Prompt: Cut up a magazine...

This weeks prompt was to cut up a magazine and use it in your planner. I did that, and I also used literature I picked up at the Chicago Creative Expo. I used an Artful Blogging magazine, and it happened to have a lot of butterflies in it. I am thinking spring in the city here!

Draw a Bird (part 2)

Today felt like spring! I decided to draw a robin on the back of the Big Bird page. Luckily for me, it was already painted robin's egg blue! I don't think I've ever tried to draw a bird head on, but I like this mama bird.

The Documented Life Prompt: Draw a bird

Draw or collage a bird. My kids loved Sesame Street when they were growing up, so I chose Big Bird. I might draw a real bird later in the week ;)  This was done with a Pitt Pen and Sharpies, and a Sharpie highlighter, and a Sharpie water based white pen.

Happy Mail...Mail Art

More mail art going out today. I've received some very cool handpainted papers, ATCs, tags, charms, and postcards and pictures from around the world doing these trades the last few weeks.

Documented Life Prompt: What makes me me?

This week's prompt was "What makes you you?" I'm  work in progress and so that's how I started this page.

 Drawing a caterpillar on an old book page...used a little pencil first to make sure I got him about the right size to fit on the page later.

Extreme caterpillar closeup. 

This is moving along, at a snail's pace, because I'm not sure what I want to write. I knew I wanted to approach it from the idea of being a work in progress, and changing, hence the caterpillar to butterfly. I think many of us can relate to the hopeful idea that we can go from where we are, and grow and improve ourselves. Sometimes we might even have to hide in a cocoon for a while along the way!  As usual, I read a lot when looking for images to draw, and have learned from this article in Scientific American this amazing bit about how the metamorphosis happens.

Here it is all done (I think). I wanted to mostly think about what makes me me, in a positive fashion....and a few of the things I try to work on and do better.

Butterflies...it's spring time as far as I'm concerned.

I worked on a planner page today, inspired by my the beautiful pictures of butterflies my cousin posted on Facebook. I don't have the page done, but I did a little drawing of a monarch butterfly and glued him to a bright yellow planner page. Lately I've been using a lot of strong sunny colors and I think it's because I'm craving something besides cold, snow, sleet, and gray skies. I can't make it happen outside, but I can make it happen in my art journal. It might hurt your eyes to look at this one when I get it done. Stay tuned!

Tags...some to sell, some to trade

 I'm making some tags to sell at the shop, and some to trade with other artists. I started with plain shipping tags from an office supply store. Then I used the gelli plate to print them up with color and pattern. I used fluid acrylics to print these, and I like how easy it was to ink over without clogging the pen.

Next I added some rather bold stenciling using black and punchinella. I have a stamp I carved in the shape of a highway sign, and I stamped that on, and also used the stamp pad to ink the edges of the tags black.

After a little inking to add the 66 and the word "route" and some doodling, they are pretty much done. Some are to trade, so I left some of them plainer so that those artists can add what they please to them.

Gauche Alchemy hits a home run with the art supplies!

I did a little shopping at Gauche Alchemy. I am so pleased with the service and the products. Look how they were packed too...all rolled up in old sewing patterns and tied with jute. What can I reuse out of this package? Absolutely everything! You have to love a company that puts that much care and thought into it. 

I never had any punchinella. Used bubble wrap to do little circles, but that gives a whole different look. Well, I have some now! This is the 5 dollar variety pack, and there is such a nice variety of sizes and shapes. Can't wait to play with it all this afternoon.

Friday....off to post some "mail art."

More "mail art" going out today in return for the goodies I received this week. I even got some original art work in the mail this week!

I am using this as a planner and I carry it in my purse. There has been discussion in the Documented Life Project group about this. Many of the members have other planners on their phones and such, and for them this is mostly an art journal, but mine is full of notes and lists. I'm putting in little pictures from the week too. If something happens during the day that I want to remember, I jot it down.

Livingston County Courthouse

I'm trying to include little sketches of Pontiac in my planner. I figure it might be interesting to look a back on, for me, or my grandkids, if this journal is still around then. This is the courthouse. I snapped a picture on an extremely cold morning, and since it's also just as cold today, I decided I'd better draw from the photo. As you can see it gets a little wonky, but I like the exercise of starting straight in with pen. This is the kind of thing I used to crumple up and throw away and start over until I'd get a more precise drawing...these days I just enjoy them for what they are. And...they are more fun to draw.

We have a beautiful downtown, situated around this courthouse in a square.

Documented Life Project...collage with recycled items

 For this page I used some Hawaii postcards my neighbor gave me, and some of the paper I printed.

This next page started out the way it looks above. I used a colorful envelope from some "happy mail" and also a scrap of newspaper, and some sheet music. I like it and think it's very pretty, but the challenge was to use recycled items, so I kept adding things and ended up with the collage below.

I tend to mostly have a background and draw on it...since I hardly ever do things that are very layered, I wanted to give that a try. For this one I started with an envelope that I received in "happy mail" from another artist (that's the pink/purple you see). I also used old sheet music that was the original thing I "tipped-in." Next came some money and game pieces from games I picked up on the curb after someone's garage sale. There is also some paper toweling I used to mop up paint as I was printing the other night.

Of course the page was inspired by thoughts of how rich and blessed I am in things that money can't buy.

Layering ...monoprinting

I added another layer to some of the papers and envelopes I printed the other day. I used spay inks and a few pretty stencils. I like the crisper images on top of the prints. These papers will be used in collages and as backgrounds in some pages in journals and parts of mixed media paintings. Next time I'm going to use some of  the stamps I carved, including a couple Route 66 ones, that will make good paper for Route 66 drawings and paintings.

I got four of the envelopes ready to go out in the mail. They are stuffed full of vintage papers, maps, music, and game pieces, and some of the paper I printed.

Monoprinting with a Gelli Plate

I'd been resisting this whole monoprinting trend with mixed media artists, but after watching Roben-Marie Smith's video about gelli printing, I had to try it. I don't used many preprinted papers in my journals or other artwork, because I want the work to be all my own. Same with stamps. I've started carving my own rather crude stamps.

I ordered the gelli plate and stencils from Alleystamp Shop on Etsy. They came in good shape and very quickly.

 I experimented with the two techniques that Roben demonstrates in her video, and I think the papers will be even cooler with a little spray ink or doodling. It's pretty quick, and I played around with printing for about 3 hours! I made lots of pretty papers, and a few duds. I can't wait to try different kinds of paints like the fluid acrylics too. For now, I just stuck to the cheap craft paints.

While I was at it, I printed on some envelopes for happy mail too. They are so cheerful, and didn't warp like they do when I watercolor them.

This is part of my new stash! There are probably at least twice this many, plus the envelopes. I think with a little practice, I'll be able to make all my own printed papers, except for the kinds of things I clip out of magazines and books. And did I mention it's fun??! Yep, it's fun!

Art Journaling.....evolution of an idea.

This week's challenge from The Documented Life Project was to incorporate a flap on to your tipped in page. It seemed my mind was a blank (rather unusual), and I couldn't think of what I wanted to make my page about. Then I looked around my office and saw some tags I made a long time ago. They depict certain wishes I had for my home and life...some of them silly, some way out, and some very longed for. They came from a set of tags I made for another project. The project is interesting and you might like to try it someday. It was inspired by the book Twenty Wishes by Debbie McComber, and you can find out more about it in this post. Here is the whole set, minus one that somebody decided to swipe out of my studio when it was up at the shop:

I started thinking about how many of these things have come true since I made the tags, but sometimes not at all in the way I thought and wished and hoped they would. I thought I knew how things were supposed to go, but I guess God had other things in mind, and the way was not an easy one. It's hard to change your thinking when you've been trying hard to do what you think God wants you to do. That reminded me of this verse:

I made this page late at night and was too lazy to wash out brushes, so I made the flowers and bug with a Q-Tip and acrylics, and used markers and an ink pen for the rest.

Then I glued the tags to some really cool green stitched "paper" that is more like interfacing. I got it at Papyrus, which is a very hard place to leave empty handed if you are a paper lover! Since I wasn't sure the glue would stick well to the interfacing-ish paper, I zig-zagged around them with the sewing machine. Then I zig-zagged it to the journal page. I'm trying to embrace that the stitching is not perfect...I've made a lot of headway in loosening up, but sometimes I struggle. Hey, it's in my planner, not on the wall...relax.

Here are the fronts of those cards. I didn't change them a bit. Finished, warm, happy, and relaxed were words I wanted to describe our home all those years ago.  Now I have that, but not in the way I thought it would happen. As they always say, God can see the big picture, but we can only see a small part. I'm learning that sometimes I have to go with the flow, making decisions that I feel are right, and trust God with the outcome.

Pulling out the tags....

Pulled alll the way out. That's a long page!

Here is the other side of the tags, with a picture of my new home glued in place.

Happy Mail..Mail Art

 It's Friday, so some happy mail is going out. I am not doing heavily doodled envelopes now, because they take a lot of time. I realized I'd have to quit "happy mail" if it took that long to make an envelope. So, this week I painted the envelopes and did a quick stencil. I like them, and I think they'd make good collage bits.

The back side was messy after the painting. So when I cleaned off the stencils, I rubbed the ink right into the stencil again...lighter image, and looks kind of cool. Waste not,  want not.